The present invention relates to a method and system for providing interactive tutoring and memory training. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and system for enhanced learning of foreign language skills.
Many computer-based teaching machine designs store questions or problems to present to the user as prompts for the correct answer or solution. The user""s responses are evaluated by comparison to the stored answer and in the more sophisticated machines, the process control is influenced by the evaluation. However, existing art has a number of weaknesses. Existing art requires the user to respond with complete answers. Existing art informs the user that an incorrect answer was incorrect without informing the user exactly what was incorrect about his answer; the user often cannot identify exactly what was incorrect about his answer. Existing art normally responds to correct answers by immediately presenting the next answer. The previous correct answer disappears. Thus the user could have guessed the correct answer without actually knowing what it was, or immediately forgotten what the correct answer was. In addition, existing art processes answers as either correct or incorrect.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,589 to Waters, titled Fault-tolerant Audio Interactive Tutor, attempts to address some of the problems of existing art by considering answers to be correct if they are close enough, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,919 to Collins, et al., attempts to solve problems of the existing art by seeking to determine not whether the answer is correct or not, but merely whether the user thinks the answer is correct. Neither of these approaches attempts to deal with partially correct answers.
Other problems of existing art include the fact that existing art does not make use of subliminal suggestion to prompt the user with the correct answer. Further, existing art does not present the user with prior errors. In addition, importantly, existing art does not attempt to deal with the problem of graded interval recall taking actual elapsed real time into consideration. Material is reviewed on the basis of correctly/incorrectly answered priority, the most crude form of which is to simply repeat incorrectly answered questions. Attempts to prioritize the sequence of material on a more intelligent basis (see, U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,210 to Turnquist) can result in delays of reviews until long after the material has been lost from short-term memory.
It is an advantage of the present invention to overcome the problems of the existing art by creating a method and system that provides a short-to long-term memory bridge. It is an advantage of the present invention to solve the problem of excessive repetition by requiring the user is required to respond with only the part of the answer not yet correctly entered.
It is an advantage the present invention to solve the problem of users being unable to identify exactly what was incorrect about an answer by immediately showing incorrect answers using a marker indicating where the answer is incorrect. With this feature, the user clearly and immediately sees the error.
It is an advantage of the present invention to solve the problem of users guessing the correct answer without actually knowing what it was, or immediately forgetting what the correct answer is by showing the previous correct answer on the screen for the user""s reference. This feature reinforces the correct answer in the user""s memory.
It is an advantage of the present invention to solve the problem of users knowing part of the answer. The present invention responds to partly complete answers by incrementally showing part of the correct answer. The user is required to complete the remaining part of the answer only.
It is an advantage of the present invention to prompt the user with the correct answer for a very short time on the answer line, subliminally suggesting the answer to the user. It is an advantage of the present invention to use the prompting technique in review mode, where the user""s memory is passively reinforced by displaying the question/answer pair briefly on the screen.
It is an advantage the present invention to solve the problem of a user being unable to make use of their prior errors by presenting the user with prior errors a given question for material that is determined to be not very well known by the user. This serves as a reference for the user to learn not to repeat previous errors.
It is an advantage of the present invention to solve the problem of graded interval recall by periodically reviewing each element of material according to the proven length of retention the user has for that element. Reviews are timed according to graded interval recall by a computation that takes into account the exact real time and date when the user first learned the element. Furthermore, it is an advantage of the present invention to use default sequencing of material in which material is interrupted by a special array called ARRAY-G, which stores the material that has been learned and when. After a pre-set interval, (e.g. twenty minutes), a period after which the user is most likely to forget, the material is reviewed, thereby bridging the gap between short-term and long-term memory.
The present invention is embodied in a series of flow charts automatically implemented, such as on any general-purpose computer, including xe2x80x9cpersonalxe2x80x9d microcomputers. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the same logic used for written questions/written answers can also be used in, but not limited to audio questions and aural responses (i.e., in study of pronunciation and elocution), as well as graphics and other GUI systems (e.g., in the study of anatomy or other charts to which the user responds by pointing and clicking on the response with a mouse).
An embodiment of the present invention carefully times and tracks the user""s progress without exerting any pressure or rushing the user. The present invention stores the time and date when the user learns an answer, and the amount of time elapsed from that date is used to determine the presentation of the material and the schedule of reviews.
The program logic of the present invention reviews material that has been retained for a preset time (e.g., twenty minutes) so that the material in the user""s short-term memory becomes ingrained in the user""s long-term memory. The present invention tracks the user""s progress on each memory item over time in exact detail with a 14-point gradation of retention levels.
An embodiment of the present invention includes a database with records containing problems or questions with their correct answers or responses. A field in each record stores a value used to indicate the level of retention the user has for each question/answer pair. This value is used to determine the display and response mode for each record. The display and response modes require greater retention as the material becomes more familiar. Conversely, display and response modes again become easier for question/answer pairs that the user has forgotten. Thus the retention value is constantly adjusted to reflect the user""s performance.